Book Brief: Leading Quietly

As Harvard Business School professor Badaracco correctly points out, everyday leadership is rarely dramatic, and the decisions that keep an organization going are never carried out at the very top of the organization.

Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing
By Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.
Harvard Business School Press, 2002
224 pages, $25.95

As Harvard Business School professor Badaracco correctly points out, everyday leadership is rarely dramatic, and the decisions that keep an organization going are never carried out at the very top of the organization. The focus here is on the middle- and senior-level managers who keep the place running. Badaracco lists eight traits the best of these managers have in common. They range from the commonsensicalthey truly master the question at handto the counterintuitivethey try not to make important decisions too quickly. It adds up to a useful checklist.